ZBT Z8103AX-D: upgrading from 21.02 to 23.05

For Developers
1

Hi!

I have Z8103AX-D that has openwrt on it but it is very outdated and it is customized by the seller (the logo says: OpenWRT Wireless Freedom). I want to upgrade to latest version of OpenWrt (23.05) so I can download the plugins/extensions I needed but I don't know how to do it.

ui of openwrt wireless freedom
ui of openwrt wireless freedom1871×906 47.1 KB

Here's the result of cat /etc/openwrt_release


DISTRIB_ID='OpenWrt'
DISTRIB_RELEASE='21.02-SNAPSHOT'
DISTRIB_REVISION='23.0427_012013'
DISTRIB_TARGET='mediatek/mt7981'
DISTRIB_ARCH='aarch64_cortex-a53'
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION='OpenWrt 21.02-SNAPSHOT unknown'
DISTRIB_TAINTS='no-all busybox'

Help is much appreciated. I'm willing to pay for your coffee. Thank you

1 Like
2

This is now known as filogic according to:
https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/23.05.0/targets/mediatek/filogic/

Nobody else has this device, so you would have to port actual Openwrt to it, instead of the forked release you are currently running.

1 Like
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Hi, can you send me some resources on how to do the porting? Thank you

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1 Like
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Cudy WR3000 is another MT7981 device, so the architecture exists, but not the specific target.

If @darknblack can ssh into the ZBT, and get dmesg, there may be a chance.

6

Hi! Here's the result of dmesg:

I can also open the router if needed. Let me know what I can do to help

7

I found this thread, which could be a good starting point for us: Adding OpenWrt support for ZBT Z8102AX

Running the cat /sys/kernel/debug/gpio command on the z8103ax-d router will display the following:

root@OpenWrt:~# cat /sys/kernel/debug/gpio
gpiochip0: GPIOs 455-511, parent: platform/11d00000.pinctrl, pinctrl_moore:
 gpio-455 (                    |mesh                ) in  hi IRQ
 gpio-456 (                    |reset               ) in  hi IRQ ACTIVE LOW
 gpio-463 (                    |net                 ) out hi ACTIVE LOW
 gpio-478 (                    |blue                ) out lo ACTIVE LOW
 gpio-479 (                    |green               ) out lo ACTIVE LOW
 gpio-480 (                    |red                 ) out hi
 gpio-494 (                    |reset               ) out hi

Here is the OpenWrt 21.02 firmware (.bin file) that I am currently using on the z8103ax-d router. Perhaps someone can extract important information from it.

Here's the DTB files extracted from the firmware above ^ using this tool:

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I used the dtc tool to convert the DTB file to DTS.

Here's the outcome:

I wonder what should be the next step :thinking:

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I hope someone can check if what I wrote here is reasonable before I actually make a build out of it and test it on my router. I'm afraid of bricking my device :sweat_smile:

I'm particulary unsure about the 11_fix_wifi_mac and platform.sh file.

10

Progress: I was able to install Openwrt Snapshot using UART.

image
image1031×698 18 KB

LAN + WIFI works great.

I can't understand why the MAC address of wan is : though :3

image
image1113×835 53.8 KB

2 Likes
11

I have just got a Z8103AX-W!! ( that's what the admin page footer says!!)
What could be the default ssh password?
Anyone know of any support channels for this router?

12

try
user: root
pass: admin

13

Thanks for the reply. No luck with the password!
From a config backup dump I could read /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow. Tried to run 'john' with it, but no hashes decoded.
/etc/passwd starts with:

root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/false
wintop:$1$Yup7HSfh$1OcxXy1RiULWyHwi91jTq.:0:0:root:/root:/bin/ash
anywifi:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/ash

/etc/shadow starts with:

root:$1$/upNzzBq$n6dSjhrukZDsXFFm33doL1:18624:0:99999:7:::
anywifi:$1$cIlJAfeI$yOK2PILQg0Qy88F/ZcR4Q/:16577:0:99999:7:::

Hope to get some breakthru from that info.

14

Good news!! I just edited the /etc/passswd file in the backup dump.
Changed the first line to:
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/ash

Then just did
tar -czf ./Backupaclink.tar.gz etc on my mac, upload that Backupaclink.tar.gz to the router's "Backup" page to restore.
Now I can ssh root@192.168.1.1 with my 'admin' password.

ssh root@192.168.1.1
root@192.168.1.1's password: 


BusyBox v1.33.2 (2022-10-31 08:39:59 UTC) built-in shell (ash)

  _______                     ________        __
 |       |.-----.-----.-----.|  |  |  |.----.|  |_
 |   -   ||  _  |  -__|     ||  |  |  ||   _||   _|
 |_______||   __|_____|__|__||________||__|  |____|
          |__| W I R E L E S S   F R E E D O M
 -----------------------------------------------------
 OpenWrt 21.02-SNAPSHOT, unknown
 -----------------------------------------------------

:slightly_smiling_face:

3 Likes
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That's nice! Can you show us the image/picture of your router?

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Z8103AX Router
Z8103AX Router1062×1067 46.2 KB

1 Like
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We have the exactly the same "casing". It's prolly the same, maybe the only difference is the "firmware installed".

This is what the inside of the router looks like.

IMG_20231024_180538
IMG_20231024_1805381836×2654 471 KB

IMG_20231024_180445
IMG_20231024_1804451920×2560 466 KB

IMG_20231024_180305
IMG_20231024_1803051920×2560 522 KB

1 Like
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Hi, can someone explain these error/warning logs to me?

Specifically this line:
[ 1.387528] ubi0 warning: ubi_eba_init: cannot reserve enough PEBs for bad PEB handling, reserved 17, need 20

[    0.940399] UBI: auto-attach mtd4
[    0.943722] ubi0: default fastmap pool size: 25
[    0.948268] ubi0: default fastmap WL pool size: 12
[    0.953047] ubi0: attaching mtd4
[    1.374410] ubi0: scanning is finished
[    1.387528] ubi0 warning: ubi_eba_init: cannot reserve enough PEBs for bad PEB handling, reserved 17, need 20
[    1.398003] ubi0: attached mtd4 (name "ubi", size 64 MiB)
[    1.403406] ubi0: PEB size: 131072 bytes (128 KiB), LEB size: 126976 bytes
[    1.410281] ubi0: min./max. I/O unit sizes: 2048/2048, sub-page size 2048
[    1.417061] ubi0: VID header offset: 2048 (aligned 2048), data offset: 4096
[    1.424008] ubi0: good PEBs: 512, bad PEBs: 0, corrupted PEBs: 0
[    1.430004] ubi0: user volume: 3, internal volumes: 1, max. volumes count: 128
[    1.437218] ubi0: max/mean erase counter: 2/1, WL threshold: 4096, image sequence number: 1698314449
[    1.446335] ubi0: available PEBs: 0, total reserved PEBs: 512, PEBs reserved for bad PEB handling: 17
[    1.455551] ubi0: background thread "ubi_bgt0d" started, PID 416
[    1.457636] block ubiblock0_1: created from ubi0:1(rootfs)
[    1.467045] ubiblock: device ubiblock0_1 (rootfs) set to be root filesystem

Is this achievable? Can someone guide me on how to convert bl2 to UBI block. Thanks

[47123.246960] mtdblock: MTD device 'bl2' is NAND, please consider using UBI block devices instead.

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Update: It is now for review & approval :partying_face::tada:

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@darknblack
How is the progress so far?!